Hoping to energize female voters after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Democrats are urging their base to vote for “reproductive rights” Nov. 5; and now voters in at least nine states (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New York, Nevada, and South Dakota) will be voting on state-level abortion measures. In many of the states, the ballot initiatives seek to establish or provide a fundamental/constitutional right to abortion in the state constitution.
Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, says pro-lifers must get out and vote, especially after the Dobbs ruling energized the other side.
"In a post-Dobbs world, pro-lifers have to be even more active and vocal than they were before,” she says, “because our opponents are putting together money and their own people, trying to change the laws so that there are no limits whatsoever on abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
"The abortion industry has decided that they are going to go for everything they can," Tobias emphasizes.
Since that landmark ruling two years ago, pro-life state legislatures have passed strict laws on abortion. The other side, meanwhile, has fought back with well-funded ballot initiatives that are changing state constitutions to include the right to abortion.
The biggest post-Dobbs win for abortion supporters so far came in red-state Ohio, and that victory energized them to duplicate their plans in other right-leaning states.
Read – and understand – the fine print
When voters read those ballot measures in November, Tobias says the “yes” or “no” wording on the ballot must be read carefully. Two words to look for are “viability” and “health,” she warns, because those words can be twisted by abortion activists to win votes from pro-life voters. She explains further:
"'Viability' means the baby can survive outside the womb. Right now, the basically accepted standard is 24 weeks. Some babies have survived earlier than that, but in a case where it's an abortion, the abortionist is the one deciding if the baby is viable," Tobias shares. "So, even if the woman is 30 weeks pregnant, the abortionist could say the baby is not viable and do the abortion and no one is ever going to know."
Most of these ballot measures, she continues, talk about the "life" or "health" of the pregnant person.
"But the Supreme Court back in 1973 defined 'health,' when you're talking about abortion, as physical, emotional, psychological, familial, the woman's age – all these factors relate to health," says the pro-life leader. "So, if she says I'm too young or I'm too old to have a baby, I already have one child, I don't want another, this is going to impact me emotionally because I don't think I could handle a baby – those are all health reasons.
"So, if that word is in the ballot measure, then again there is no reason that a woman will not be able to seek and abortion."
Extreme initiatives lead to extreme losses
Kelsey Pritchard, director of state public affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, says the stakes are high for those states considering the initiatives.
"If we lost them all, that could mean the loss of protections for 52,409 babies annually," Pritchard explains. "So, it's very important that people understand how extreme these amendments are, and that they need to engage to defeat them in November."
While these are state issues, Pritchard says a lot of "outside money from George Soros and Planned Parenthood" has been going into the ballot initiatives.
"We've been majorly outspent in every race. It was 2-to-1 in Michigan and in Ohio as these outside left-wing groups in the abortion lobby poured tens of millions of dollars," says pro-life spokesperson. "And the Left has a hold on nearly every major institution, from Hollywood and the media to academia and many C Suites."
How to offset that? "We need more GOP-elected officials to lend their voices to stop these measures, and to help fundraise against these measures – and [then] we could see more Republican leaders doing as [Florida] Governor DeSantis is doing by raising the money and speaking out against the deception."
Like Tobias, Pritchard urges voters to pay close attention to the language in the ballot initiatives.
"They use words like 'viability' in the language. But essentially when you read the full text amendment, and understand how courts have ruled previously, all of these measures allow all-trimester abortion – first trimester, second trimester, third trimester, essentially up until birth. They're very deceptive."
And another warning about advertising that is confusing.
"People think they're voting on woman's healthcare and [are told] that if you don't vote for this amendment or these amendments, women are going to die; that they're not going to be able to get miscarriage care or ectopic pregnancy care.
"That's a complete lie," Pritchard stresses. "In every single state that has a pro-life law, women continue to have access to emergency care when they're pregnant. [Abortion advocacy groups are] using this lie because they know that if they talk about the issue of abortion, and they talk about what they actually do, they're going to lose in November."
